Indeed, not only the dizzying development of modern technology our contemporary age rush towards the luxurious and prosperous life that is promised, toppling our inherited values; in addition, with a determined sense of destruction – which can be more suitably called “social delirium” – and with a sense of disloyalty, a manifest war is waged against our collective system of belief, traditions, customs, cultural and religious dynamics, a system that has been passed down to us from a glorious past. In so doing, they divorce the soul of our society from God and His Messenger, and from its history as well; compelling us to live through years of separation, one after another. In the meantime, a great many inept souls in an impetuous rush for identity bustle from one delirium to another, while many others crumble into the void for the sake of a pure nothing. During this term it was essentially the destiny of our society to spend each day in search for a new direction, each morning turning towards a new niche. Masses, in a confusion of tides between taboos, rushed hither and thither spending their lives chasing vanities, while months and years became wasted and spilt into nothingness. In the meantime, that traditional holy privacy of the family has been smashed into pieces for the sake of a fantasy and our homes have virtually been transformed into arenas of clashing contrarieties. Our homes, which are softer and warmer than the birds’ nests, have been rendered into inns and hotel rooms for short stopovers and swift migrations. Those who imagined living in these unfortunate shelters are always longing for genuine and permanent happiness; they effervesce with the pleasures of ephemeral amusements and lead their lives as the victims of their bodies, serving a life-sentence in the narrow confines of corporeality with feeble willpowers, unbelieving hearts, starving souls, bleak horizons, and shaken hopes.

Those who became suitors for alien unlawful qualities instead of adopting positive aspects in terms of science and technology, those who have trampled upon their own ethical values, through the mendacity of nothingness within abundance have displayed a different form of mendicancy at each doorstep, disappearing into the deadly whirlpools of their sad lot, having become enslaved to their soulless ambitions. It all happened at the same time, when they dreamt of ruling the entire world in a very near future, setting up interstellar travel agencies, solving the secrets of existence, elongating the lifespan of humankind with unnamed inventions, even providing a cure for death, attaining the absolute satisfaction after overcoming the pangs of their passions, and bringing in new profundities to the current amusements and pleasures of the life they lead. Nowadays there are a myriad of people who are intoxicated by the enchantment of these false dreams and this plenitude, closing their eyes tightly to the sun of reality, striving to lead a life in the candlelight they kindled within their delusion. However, neither is it so easy to base life upon whims and illusions, nor is this extremely long journey that awaits humankind so trivial as to be weathered with a false candle. God knows that in a very near future, when the strings of their hopes have become completely unraveled through an unknown cause, their expectations will scatter all around like beads from a rosary, and all along the itinerary everything will be invaded by unexpected things, distances will be reversed, dreams will collapse, all whims and illusions will be blocked under ruins and then, when neither any of those pretentious inventions or those pompous philosophies nor those rose-colored hopes will remain, they will not remain equal to commemorative archaic artifacts exhibited in the museums.

I wonder if we should pity, scold, or sit down and weep for the condition of these unfortunate ones who have been rendered lonely between existence and non-existence, who cannot receive remitting news from any aspect of existence, having been distracted and delayed by alienation and separation at a certain junction that is intersected by so many paths.

Contrary to these unfortunate ones whose hearts are filled with fog and smoke, whose willpowers have been paralyzed by various contrarieties and those who think keeping on walking around the whirlpools of death is walking towards life, in the same arena are the souls whose eyes of the heart watch the beyond, whose emotions froth and bubble with the ecstasy of turning towards the Truth (Haqq); their hands are opened up to God with the entire treasures of their bosoms and souls, like rain-laden clouds, lying in wait for breezes into which they will pour themselves, the feeling of chastity in their hearts is apparent in all the lines on their faces; respect for humankind and the feeling of freedom is the most prominent color of their attitude; their manners and expressions are enchanting to the extent of arousing the feeling of eternity in each heart; every behavior is a discourse reflecting their relation with the Truth sans letters or words; their human relations are extremely warm and sincere, like that of spiritual beings; their homes, schools, and garrisons are virtually like temples, while their temples are a sacred fountain serving the river of Paradise (kawthar) through their most profound mysterious Divine nature – souls busy in waiting.

These souls, with bowls of offerings in their hands, in the excitement of awaiting the turning of pure consciences towards themselves as a means of opportunity, without indulging in expectation of return, support and influence, roam above the heads of everyone, like the clouds; pouring down as rain and flowing everywhere; cracking open like the soil and opening their bosoms to the sprouts, sometimes above heads, sometimes under the feet, forgetting to live for their own behalf, they are busy with the passion of letting live while they roam around, blowing resurrection everywhere. Indeed, the world they will carve and shape and the historical inheritance they will bequeath to future generations will bring smiles to the faces of both this society and future generations. Such a formation, which will eternalize our love and fervor with a fresh revival and ignite our willpowers in the name of constructing the future, will be the final fruit of the effervescing love that is like gushing springs, the exhilaration of worship abreast with the pleasures of Paradise and the determination, hope, and faith that will voice our existence with the songs of eternity, the launch-pad and quay of sailing to infinity.

In short, just as there are lights descending upon us continuously, the foul-smelling smoke is rising at the same time. What can one say about this as the Divine decree has always occurred in this way – we pray it does not last long – but from this time onward it seems to continue in the same.

Everything flows; water, history, stars, men and thought;
Double are the troughs; radiance flows from one, and filth from the other.
Bunched together in the same stream are large and small, and the universe;
Watch that cloud rising, just out of spite for descending water!
Necip Fazil

One will be held responsible according to his or her intention. However, it is beneficial to know that on the subject of service to the society, we cannot claim that, in the absolute sense, our path is faultless. Moreover, misfortune can come to all, good or bad.

Yes, sometimes the path a believer follows can be flawed, but they may not run into difficulties. Sometimes, although a person walks on a faultless path, they may encounter many difficulties. In fact, many calamities can come to a person who is on a perfectly straight path; this is in order to purify and test them. If one considers that the greatest calamities came to the prophets, then the saints (or religious scholars, according to another report) and then to others according to their spiritual degree, it can be seen that trouble can come to everyone. Consequently, a person’s being subjected to difficulty does not have a great deal to do with the straightness or crookedness of the path they follow.

By means of such difficulties and calamities God encourages a person who is on a straight path to advance farther on an even better path. He can also admonish a person who has flaws to advance onto a straighter path. In other words, it is difficult to understand God’s ways. Everyone should accept calamity as a sign according to their level and be prepared for duty. Of course, this idea is very important for everyone from the aspect of self-examination.

In its simplest meaning, examining difficulties and calamities that come to others as being due to their not following one’s own path is not fair. Such a thought cannot be reconciled with a believer’s consideration of others. God help us not to say: “He deserved that!” as this in no way can be reconciled with being a believer. God forbid – He may turn such a calamity onto the person who utters these words.

In fact, even thinking that people who are on a completely flawed path have attracted calamity on their heads for this reason is nothing but an unjust and unjustified assumption.

A person should always be sincerely considerate of other believers. When we examine the matter from this perspective, even if a person should burgle our house, beat us or transgress our rights, then encountering some calamity, one should not say, “Oh, they deserved it!” If we, as victims, are defeated by our feelings at a particular moment and make a temporary lapse, later we should be remorseful and say, “Oh my Lord! I am sorry! I seek refuge in You!”

The attitude of one believer towards another should always be just and this is our responsibility. For – God willing – one day we will pass over the Sirat (bridge) together, enter Heaven together and come face to face. There it is always possible for what is hidden to surface. The things we thought and designed can fall in front of us, one by one – this is possible – and we will be greatly shamed. For God says this is “The day that all things secret will be tested” (Tariq 86:9). May God, the Coverer of All Shameful Things, cover our faults and the faults of others!

A believer should be very kind and very generous so that the Most Generous God will bestow different blessings upon them. In fact, a good believer should always think and say: “My God! These people did some bad and base things to me, but I have forgiven them. I was not able to be a fully noble servant to You, oh my Lord, who is Clement and Free of Defects! Please forgive me, too!”

Indeed, it is necessary to have the means on our journey to God. Thus, a believer should consider this matter he or she happens to be with other fellow travelers doing good work a means for reaching God, seeking refuge in Him with it and seeking relief in His shade.

Yes, just as differences in path and method should not cause believers to turn against one another, this kind of reproach should not be imposed on other believing brothers or sisters.

Furthermore, seeing calamities falling on our brothers or sisters as a result of the path they are taking is no different than criticizing destiny. These kinds of thoughts are contrary to the tenets of Islam. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, “Do not say ‘I wish it had been’ (regretting what happened and condemning his fate) for it is destruction; it opens the door to the Devil’s work.” Consequently, getting hung up on thoughts like, “If they had done this, such and such a calamity would not have occurred to them” is a sign that we are setting out on the Devil’s path.

As believers, we should know that we cannot take the past to account. The past can be examined only for learning lessons and illuminating the future. In particular, if we are happy about a calamity that has befallen a believer is absolutely not acceptable, more so especially if this implies a criticism of destiny.

Dr. Andrew Newberg is Director of Research at the Myrna Brind Center for Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Medical College. He is also Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of 5 books on this topic: Principles of Neurotheology, Why We Believe What We Believe, How God Changes Your Brain, Why God Won’t Go Away, and The Mystical Mind. He is considered a pioneer in the neuroscientific study of religious and spiritual experiences.

Dr. Newberg’s research utilizes the many recent advances in brain imaging to comprehend the nature of human consciousness and to determine how we, as humans, understand reality and interact with it. His studies now focus primarily on how brain function is associated with various mental states, and in particular, the relationship between brain function and religious experiences.

Matter&Beyond: What aspect of religions interests you personally?

I think the part of religion and spirituality that really interests me the most is its focus on that which is ultimate. Teilhard de Chardin used to tell that religion is related to questions of the ultimate. And that’s something that I guess I’ve always been focused on in my own thinking, trying to understand the ultimate questions about the Universe, about reality, about how we as human beings can interact with that reality and understand that reality, and I think that to me religions have always tried to find those answers.

M&B: You obtain brain scans of people while praying and meditating. What is the focus of those studies?

I think one of the parts of religion that has become very interesting to me is the profound experiences that people can actually have, particularly the mystical experiences where people really feel like they get outside of themselves and they begin to see the world in a whole different way. These transformative mystical kinds of experiences, depending on how you define them, those to me are the most interesting experiences in many ways and certainly worthy of looking at from lots of different perspectives.

M&B: But each religion brings its own perspective. Are you looking for commonalities, do you accept varieties, what is your take on the diversity of such answers?

I don’t always agree with those specific answers, but to me there’s always that pursuit of trying to find the answers of how we understand reality. And I think that is so ultimately, and while this doesn’t always come out in the practice of religions, there is that goal of having human beings attain a higher level of existence, becoming a better person, becoming something more than what we are and feeling more connected with our world than we normally do.

M&B: Certainly, world religions bring thousands of years of accumulated resources and historical notes about those intense spiritual experiences to the table. When you look at them, what are the common elements that catch your eyes?

When we look at the spiritual literature we see when people have had mystical experiences, we frequently see a description in which people feel that they get beyond the self, they get beyond their own ego problems like selfishness, their way of looking at the world from their own self perspective, and they look at the world in a whole different way. They look at the world in a much more holistic way, in a very interconnected way, they have a deeper understanding of what that world is all about, so from a subjective experience, people have the description where they really can get beyond the ego, get beyond the self, and see the world in a very different way. Now the question is, are they really doing that? And that’s something that is certainly open for debate both philosophically as well as spiritually.

M&B: These experiences and what they mean theologically as well as philosophically were debated for centuries. But with the advances of technology, now science has something to say about that too. The study of moment to moment reactions of the brain, that’s what you are doing, was not possible fifteen years ago.

We try to bring the science along with us so that we can then use the science in that new perspective as well and understand the world in a deeper way from both sides. That to me is really where we’re ultimately headed, and hopefully the research that I do and some of the other individuals around the world who are looking at these questions; this is what I hope the world’s going to lead to.

M&B: Let’s go to particular experiences. What would be an example for an intense spiritual state?

In the work that I have been doing over the last decade, I’ve spoken a lot about a state called absolute unitary being where everything is just undifferentiated oneness. Now, theoretically and from a philosophical perspective, that should be a very similar state regardless of how one ultimately gets to it, whether one comes from an eastern or western tradition, if you are in a completely undifferentiated state of oneness, then there really can’t be other perspectives on that. On the other hand, one still has to try to make some sense out of that so that after somebody has that experience, do they then interpret it through the lens of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, what have you, and then try to make some sense out of that.

M&B: About the spiritual states that you are talking about, there’s intense fulfillment related to those states. Sometimes people get the feeling that they reached the ultimate reality, all there is and all there was and all there will ever be. And in history there are some figures who claim that they became like God.

When one talks about the highest levels of mystical states and mystical experiences, it’s always very difficult to know how to respond to people who say that they have had them. On one hand they are, or should be at least, totally indescribable to the human mind and the human brain. On the other hand, when one has any kind of experience that’s a natural tendency that one wants to do is try to explain it and express it to other people. It really creates a conflict for the person who has that experience. Most of the people I have spoken to who have had mystical experiences of one form or another generally acknowledge that while “here’s the description that I’ll give you, but it’s really very far from what that experience was all about,” and I think that’s part of the humility that comes along with those experiences of realizing in many ways that experience was so much bigger than anything that that person really can get a hold of and understand and describe, and we sort of stand before those experiences and say “Wow, this is just something which is so much bigger than me and so much bigger than the world in many ways as I understand it, that there’s just no way for me to really understand it in its totality.”

M&B: What is your scientific goal in studying these intense experiences of oneness?

I think one of the interesting things from a research perspective is to ask “are these experiences the same, are they different, are the people different, is it the interpretation of those experiences that is different”? And that is something that we don’t really know yet. I guess it depends a little bit on the kind of experience that a person has, so I think that the question is, is that experience really the same for all those individual people? Is it not quite the same? Or if people think they did get that experience but feel something a little differently, could they have gotten to another state, another mystical state that isn’t exactly there and hopefully by the study of the biology as well as the phenomenology of these experiences, we might be able to understand them that much more and understand when they’re similar, when they’re different and how people ultimately interpret those experiences to be similar or different.

M&B: On the other side there are everyday religious experiences which are not so intense however more common.

Of course, intense experiences are not the only kinds of religious experiences, and for many people religion and spirituality is a way of life. And I think that it’s equally important for us to understand what that means for a person, so that they don’t necessarily have to have a mystical experience to have a deep understanding of what their religion or what their spiritual tradition actually means to them. And I think we need to look at both. What are the similarities and what are differences.

M&B: In religions there are some rituals related to spiritual states.

A lot of the research that I’ve been pursuing over the last decade or so have looked not just at religion, but at the specific rituals that people take part in that helps you induce various types of experiences and states. One of the things that we can look at when we look at rituals is that there is a very wide variety of rituals and they can have an impact on us in lots of different ways. To that end, a lot of rituals include visual stimulation, hearing or auditory stimulation, different types of body movements and so forth. Some can be very rhythmic, some can be very frenzied, and some can be very slow and methodical. And each of these different aspects of ritual can have a different kind of impact on us as a person, the things that we feel, the experiences that we have, and how they ultimately relate to whatever concepts that those rituals are looking at and helping us to understand in a deeper way.

M&B: What would be the resulting experience after a slow ritual?

So when we look at some of the slow rituals, for example, the ones that may be like a glory and chant which is a very slow rhythmic kind of music, or a very slow physical kind of process where a person may just be doing some kind of bowing or prostration, in a rhythmic way, those are the kinds of practices that can result in very deep feelings of calmness, acquiescence, and they may feel the sense of oceanic blissfulness. We can look also at the biology of that, the different parts of the brain and body that respond to that, so when we talk about slow rituals, we’re usually talking about what’s called the parasympathetic system in the body, or what I sometimes refer to as the quiescent system in body that helps the body relax, it helps the body rejuvenate its energy stores, for example, and this ultimately plays out in the brain because these experiences are associated with emotions such as contentment, happiness, joy, and blissfulness, and we can start to see all the different changes about how the practice itself starts, how it ultimately is played out in the behaviors and the rituals that the person takes part in, and then what happens in the brain in response to the kinds of experiences that they ultimately can have.

M&B: Are there any differences between man and women in terms of spiritual experience?

When we talk about different genders and the kinds of experiences that people have, on one level we certainly have some brain data that suggests that there is a difference between men and women’s brains and how they work, although they’re fairly subtle differences. When we talk about religious and spiritual experiences, obviously both genders can have very profound and compelling kinds of experiences, and to a certain extent when one looks at the literature, they are not fundamentally distinct kinds of experiences, there is probably a different kind of emphasis and we might see that women might focus a little bit more on the emotional aspects, more on the holistic aspects, but that’s a very subtle distinction and in the brain imaging studies that we’ve done as an example, again there are some very minor subtle differences between men and women, but in general, most of the changes that we’ve seen in one gender, we also see in the other. It might be to a slightly different degree in a few different structures, but in general, what we tend to see, especially as you get to the more profound and compelling kinds of experiences, is that there are a lot of similarities between men and women.

M&B: In what way do those mystical experiences transform an individual?

I think, as we look at different kinds of mystical experiences and different kinds of spiritual states, we do see kind of a continuum of these experiences and what myself and what my colleagues have argued for is that when one gets into the real high level of mystical states where that sense of getting beyond the self and the sense of connectedness extends not just to a particular group, but to the entire universe, to all of humanity, to the whole world, than there really is a much deeper level of compassion, a level of realization of where each of us is and the various issues each of us faces knowing that we’re doing the best that we can, but that we’re very limited in that ability, so I think its very correct to say that when people achieve deeper and deeper levels of connection and mystical experiences that they tend to feel deeper levels of compassion and love and humility in the face of other types of belief systems.

M&B: Although you are doing important studies about this topic, there are limitations too. You often talk about the limitations in both the scientific quest and religious understanding.

I think most religious belief systems feel that God is something which is infinite and all powerful and all knowing, and therefore as a human person, it’s very difficult, we’re very limited, and we really can only look at one very small aspect of what God or religion is all about. Therefore, we have to be aware of that limitation and recognize that all of us have limitations. So we’re all, in many ways, doing the best that we can with the belief systems that we have. But we also have to respect, I think, the other belief systems that other people may have because they may be looking at the same thing, but they may just be seeing it a little bit differently.

M&B: Would you give us an example?

I always liked the analogy of having different flies on an elephant, and then you ask each fly to describe an elephant. Well, the fly that is on the trunk is going to say something different than the one that’s on the tail, and different than one that’s on the tusk. And they’re all right, but they’re also all limited in how they’re looking at it. They’re not seeing the whole thing, and I think when we talk about ultimate reality, when we talk about God, these are such huge concepts that I think people really have to be very aware of and careful about the limitations that they are putting on those ideas, on the ideas as they understand them, and also recognize that everybody else is working with very similar kinds of limitations. Hopefully this will give us a little bit more sense of compassion for each other to realize that we’re really all kind of in the same boat, and we’re all kind of dealing with the same problems of trying to understand our world the best that we can.

M&B: There is also the limit of sensory experience.

Certainly, the biology of our brain speaks to that very issue. We miss so much of what comes into the brain, what gets up into our consciousness, and what we are aware of is so small relative to all the other things that are going on around us, that it really is very sobering I think. We think that we see the whole world and that we see it so clearly, and a lot of the research that has been done over the last 10 or 20 years shows that our view of the world is really very limited, and I think when you extent that to religion and spirituality it really makes, at least me, pause and say well maybe we really need to be a little bit more aware of what those limitations are about. On one hand it’s great that we can have a spiritual or religious view about our world, but lets keep it in the understanding of what the limitations that our own mind, our own brain, impose upon that ability to think about that and to act upon it and understand it in the right way.

M&B: To summarize, what would be the role of science and spirituality in understanding the ultimate reality?

On one hand, science offers these wonderful tools to try to get at what is out there. On the other hand, religion and spirituality offer a path towards getting beyond the self. I think we really need to look at those experiences in which the person feels that they get beyond the subjective and objective nature of what the world is all about and look at it from a whole different perspective. However, our sense of religion, spirituality, and God, that is ultimately processed through the functions of the human brain. In that regard, the human brain actually in some ways constricts our ability because the universe and God are very, very big concepts, and we as human beings are very finite and very mortal in terms of how we think about the world. We can’t look at the whole world. We can’t look at the entire universe, and we can’t look at all of God. We can look at a very specific aspect of them. Therefore, the human brain actually constrains how we think about religion, how we think about God, and how we make sense of that.

M&B: So in a sense, we get a glimpse of the unlimited in our limitedness.

We really are trapped within our own mind, we’re trapped within our own consciousness, and we have a long way to go, I think, to be able to get beyond the human brain and in many ways, to have the brain get outside of itself to take a look at and really be able to know what is out there in reality.

Original Article: Morewedge C.K. et al., Science 330, 1530 (2010).

If you’ve had a chance to visit the Fatih district in Istanbul, then you have probably seen the famous mosque called “As If I Ate” (Sanki Yedim Camii). The history of the mosque is at least as interesting as its name: Kececi Hayrettin Efendi, who lived in Istanbul in the eighteenth century, led a frugal life and used to save the money he could have used for pleasures like good food. Each time he went into a restaurant, he self-suggested “as if I ate” and assumed himself full. Years go by, and one day Kececi Hayrettin Efendi decides to count the money he saved this way. Surprisingly, he realized that he had saved enough money to build a mosque. Research conducted by Carnegie Mellon University behavioral scientists has shown that Kececi Hayrettin Efendi’s “as if I ate” approach might also be a useful way to curb one’s appetite. During the study, a group of volunteers was asked to imagine eating lots of sweets repetitively before eating as many M&Ms as they like, while a second group was asked to imagine inserting coins into a laundry machine. It turned out that the group that imagined eating sweets ended up eating significantly fewer M&Ms compared to the second group. The researchers performed the same experiment with variety of foods and showed that individuals who continually imagined eating a food many times actually ate less of the imagined food than did individuals who imagined eating that food fewer times, imagined eating a different food, or did not imagine eating any food, showing the effectiveness of the “as if I ate” approach.

2- The Brain Confirms: Learning to read knows no age limit

Original article: Dehaene S. et al., Science 330, 1359 (2010).

In this age of science and technology, education affects everyone drastically. Besides getting a better job or a higher social status, knowing how to read has important beneficial impacts on brain functions. In a new study, cognitive neuroscientists identified active regions of the brain in the event of reading. Three groups (illiterate, literate who learned reading at adulthood and literate who learned at childhood) were compared for their brain activities using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The study has not only helped to illustrate the complex neural circuitry of the brain, but has also demonstrated superior brain functions in literate groups, such as responses to visual and spoken stimuli. The real surprise of the study was that people who learned reading in their adulthood had similar brain activities compared to those who learned reading in their childhood. This suggests that literacy can impact the brain at any age. It has always been assumed that the brain becomes less flexible in aging people. Pointing out these new findings, Brian Wandell, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, emphasizes the ability of the brain to adapt and change upon acquiring the ability to read. He says, “Showing that this area is responsive to learning throughout life is a real contribution.”

3- Culturomics: Measuring culture through books

Original article: Michel J.B. et al., Science 331, 176 (2011).

A team of researchers from Harvard University and Google Books Team opened a new quantitative venue for social sciences which they named “Culturomics.” They used a gigantic data set, which was generated by digitizing over 15 million books (published between 1800 and 2008, ~12% of books ever published) in English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Chinese, and Hebrew. The dataset includes over 500 billion words, and by using a new online tool (http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/) one can easily find out how many times a word was used throughout the last two centuries. The study elegantly demonstrates how human kind has changed in the twentieth century. For example, technological advances in the twentieth century became part of the culture almost three times faster than it used to be in the nineteenth century. On average, people became famous and lost their fame two times faster than in the nineteenth century, and the authors claim that the trend for becoming famous and losing fame will be even faster in the future, at which time “everyone will be famous for 7.5 minutes” on average. The researchers also spotted censorship in Nazi Germany by comparing books published in German and English by comparing the popularity of famous Jewish scientists and authors. It is yet too early to assume that this new approach will entirely change the way social scientists approach their problems, but it will certainly provide an unprecedented perspective into the humanities.

4- The search for extra dimensions is not pseudo-science after all

Original article: Bin-Nun A.Y. et al., Physical Review D 82, 064009 (2010).

The plausibility of co-existing dimensions beyond our 4 dimensional space (3 spatial + 1 time dimension) is nothing new. The attempt to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity led to the development of string theory in the late ’60s. M-Theory is a special extension of the superstring theory which predicts that there are 11 dimensions. It is posited that all elementary sub-atomic particles such as electrons and quarks are not 0-dimensional objects, but rather 1-dimensional vibrating “lines” or “strings.” These strings curl in specific patterns to form the subatomic particles, which then combine via nuclear forces to make up atoms and matter as we know it. Although the mathematical basis has long been established for string theory, it has hitherto not been tested due to the lack of observational signatures. A recent study suggests that it may be possible to observe the effects of extra dimensions after all by using supermassive black holes. Black holes, due to their immensely concentrated gravity, curve the space around them. This curvature affects even the light that passes through them. A star directly behind such a black hole may be observed as a warped or brightened astronomical source. It may even be possible to create so called “Einstein rings,” where the background star appears as a ring of light instead. The recent study argues that, if extra dimensions are not as tightly packed, the light that passes through curved space-time may exhibit anomalies which, in principle, can be detectable with very sensitive telescopes.

The learning that takes place through interfaith dialogue is one such example. The insight, emotions and experience generated by interfaith dialogue simply cannot be generated through reading textbooks. The color and depth that dialogue can add to understanding other’s faiths, one’s own faith, human psychology and society can in no way be attained through theoretical knowledge.

However, not everyone gains depth and understanding from such dialogue experiences. While some attain great levels of knowledge and wisdom, others gain nothing. Why is this so? How can two people with the same experience have such differing responses? There are three important principles which ensure that interfaith dialogue can be a teaching experience; firstly, to appreciate that interaction and sharing between people of different faiths is an important constituent of the learning experience. Secondly, to feel comfortable in knowing that interfaith dialogue and education about the “other” does not lead to confusion or conversion. Thirdly, to have the vision that dialogue can lead to cooperation.

Globalization and the increased need for education

In a globalized world where cultural and religious diversity is manifest, more awareness of the existence of other faiths and other worldviews outside our own immediate circle and society means increased interaction between people of different faiths and backgrounds. The need for knowing the “other” at some level becomes critical; lack of knowledge and interaction can dangerously reinforce the notion that the “other” is somehow alien. The moment the “other” is perceived as alien or foreign we enter unsafe grounds. As a result, education and dialogue have become strong instruments that are imperative for people seeking peace, ensuring that the “other” is not so alien.

A great deal has been written on the importance of learning through interfaith dialogue. In an article entitled “The Necessity of Interfaith Dialogue,” Dr. Yucel highlights the importance of interfaith dialogue in educating ourselves about the “other”: “The root of conflict is ignorance and ignorance is the source of prejudice. To get to know each other through dialogue is essential for the establishment of a world peace.” Swidler explains how the consequences of not having dialogue can be quite serious, even deadly: “We can no longer ignore ‘the other,’ but we can close our minds and spirits to them, look at them with fear and misunderstanding, come to resent them, and perhaps even to hate them. This way of encounter can all too easily lead to hostility and, eventually, war and death.”

Due to the importance of knowing the “other,” interfaith dialogue has been taken very seriously in multi-faith Australia. There is great diversity in Australia, not only within the Christian population, but also within the non-Christian population. 64% of the Australian population is Christian. The largest Christian denominations are: Catholic (25.8% of the population) followed by Anglican (18.7%) and the Uniting Church (5.7%). The number of people affiliated with non-Christian faiths has almost doubled in Australia in the past 10 years. The largest non-Christian religions are Buddhism (2.1%), Islam (1.7%), Hinduism (0.7%) and Judaism (0.4%).

There are many organizations in Australia that are involved in interfaith dialogue. These organizations have been established by individuals of different faith backgrounds. Affinity Intercultural Foundation is an example of such an organization that was established by a group of young Australian Muslims in early 2001 in order to facilitate the interaction of the Muslim community with the members of other faiths and to increase the awareness and understanding of the Muslim community by the wider Australian society. Affinity has organized numerous events and projects to foster dialogue between different faiths and cultures.

Initiatives undertaken by Affinity Intercultural Foundation will be used to explain the three important aspects of interfaith dialogue that enable progressive learning.

Interaction and sharing between people of different faiths is an important element of the learning experience

Education through interaction and sharing can achieve many outcomes which cannot be achieved through the reading of text books, even if one was to read volumes and volumes of text books.

Whenever we interact with each other, our ignorance is highlighted and we realize that there is clearly a gap in our knowledge of one another. We make assumptions, we stereotype and we pretend we know when we don’t. We come to the realization that we have no idea about certain things or that what we knew was incorrect.

Through interactions, we ask, we witness, we experience, and we learn. This type of learning becomes internalized because it has been experienced.

Sharing of sacred times is a good example of such learning; non-Muslims going to Muslim homes for iftar (breaking of the fast) during the month of Ramadan, Muslims visiting the church at Easter or Christmas or the synagogue for Sukkot or Hanukkah.

I have been told that entering a home where the last minute iftar preparations are taking place is quite a unique experience for a non-Muslim. The realization that nothing, absolutely nothing has been eaten all day and the witnessing of that first meal, is quite profound. So profound that it leads to many questions: Did you get really hungry today? How does fasting help you to connect with God? Does fasting make you feel more humble? As the meal is shared, the conversation leads from one topic to another.

The experience becomes even more interesting when the non-Muslim guests choose to fast for the day, purely to share the experience with their Muslim hosts. It becomes a trigger for further discussion as individuals reflect on their experience of fasting.

Such interactions and sharing can be defined as multi-dimensional education, as there is so much learning taking place through our words, actions, experiences, emotions and thoughts. Similarly, there is so much we learn from observing the experience of the other individuals. It is a learning which is alive and positively life-changing, an experience that cannot be replaced through the reading of volumes and volumes of textbooks.

Interfaith dialogue and education about the “other” does not lead to confusion or even conversion

A common misconception about interfaith dialogue is that listening to others talk about their faith will lead to confusion about our own faith. Some also believe that there is a danger that we will settle for the “lowest common denominator” or a “watered-down” version of our faiths. In reality, the opposite scenario has become the norm in interfaith dialogue circles; people actually feel that they learn more about their own faith and become better Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists or Hindus through interfaith dialogue.

A project that has demonstrated this point is the Home Encounters project. Home Encounters is a community-based educational approach involving Muslims and Christians meeting on a monthly basis over six months.

At each meeting a new topic, such as monotheism, spirituality, or poverty, is covered from both a Christian and Muslim perspective. This is followed by an informal discussion and a question-and-answer session.

For previous groups who have participated in this project the experience has generated profound understandings of the other in their frame of reference. The key to success is the establishment of an atmosphere of trust in the informal setting of the participants’ homes, alternating between Christian and Muslim homes, and a willingness to understand. The right atmosphere and right attitude produce an environment of learning and sharing.

An insightful reflection by one of the participants of the first encounter reaffirms the presence of such an atmosphere:

Plates of Divine sweet talk gently moved across and around the table. So harmonious was the aroma of dialogue, so sweet was the taste of familiarity in beliefs that unity gently touched all hearts… And as the question and answers were shared like a summer dessert over coffee, learning, reflecting, understanding and peacefully digesting the different spices of faith, everyone only gained more appetite…

An outcome of the project, which surprised many of the participants, was that the discussions increased the participants’ level of knowledge and understanding of their own faith tradition. Reading up on the topic of discussion, studying the topic in preparation for a fifteen-minute presentation and finally hearing the topic being discussed and analyzed from various angles not only helped them to learn about the topic from the other faith perspective, but it also deepened their understanding of the topic from their own faith perspective.

The dialogue that takes place during the question-and-answer session are mentally stimulating as the questions that are asked by an individual from another faith are usually very different to the questions we would be asked by someone from our own faith. This enables us to consider the topic from unique angles, resulting in a more all-encompassing understanding. For example, a Muslim won’t often ask “Do you have a concept similar to the Holy Spirit in Islam?” or “How do you relate to God if you do not know what God looks like?” But these questions prompt a Muslim to search the answers to these questions, and by the end one has generated a deeper understanding of God, His Names, His Attributes and how they are manifested.

This deeper understanding is a mutual experience. This was confirmed by Rev. Grahame Ellis who also participated in Home Encounters; here he reflects on his first encounter:

… it was a Muslim question that compelled me as a Christian to this new affirmation…The fact is that I would not have had this insight if it had not been for a Muslim.

Such reflections highlight the importance of creating a positive environment so that true learning can take place through discussion, reflection, and investigation.

Dialogue leads to co-operation

Once a relationship has been developed and there is trust between the different faith groups, it is only natural that this will lead to cooperation. One of the first areas where there can be cooperation is education. Youth Encounters offers exactly this.

Youth Encounters, a project which involves four Muslim schools, four Christian schools and four Jewish schools has been organized every year since 2004. As part of the project, senior high school students from the participating schools go through training to prepare them for an end of year gala. The gala involves workshops where the students from the different schools come together and discuss various topics such as “my identity.” For many Christian students, this is the first time they meet a Muslim or a Jew. And for many Muslim and Jewish students, this is the first time they have the chance to converse at a deep level with a Christian.

The results are amazing. At the beginning of the gala, the students are quiet, unsocial, and serious, staying together with the students from their own school. However, by the end of the day, the students from different schools are having deep conversations, asking each other all sorts of questions and even exchanging email addresses to continue communicating with their new friends.

One student said, “I had never had an intimacy or conversation with other people with different beliefs. But we found a common ground which I didn’t know was possible.”

Another student admitted, “It takes away the textbook Jew and the textbook Catholic. It’s really interesting; you just have to try it. It’s an experience that you just can’t read from a paper.”

On the adult level, some projects have included co-operation in the areas of environment and peace. Coming together for a common concern facilitates unity and helps us to see our commonalities as we all strive to achieve certain goals that affect all of us, no matter what faith or culture we belong to. These are concerns which focus on our humanness and the emotions that come with being human, such as compassion towards those who die in places of conflict or feeling a sense of responsibility towards the environment.

An example of an initiative focusing on the environment is PowerShift 09, the first national youth summit on climate change; held in Australia, this event attracted 1,200 young adults from around the country. As was evident at this summit, there is a powerful unity that forms when addressing issues such as the environment. Awareness befalls upon all, this is an issue that must be tackled by all; otherwise the consequences will be felt by all. Thus, when we realize that we all share the same hopes, the same fears, and the same aspirations, a realization that comes with interfaith dialogue, co-operation comes easily.

In conclusion, the learning that takes place through interfaith dialogue plays a critical role in the globalized world in which we live. Thus we can attain a dialogue that is based on interaction, learning that leads to clarification, and a better understanding that leads to co-operation. It is through this learning that the attitudes of not only our youth, but the whole community changes for the better. Positive attitudes mean positive relationships, a key element for a harmonious society.

Zuleyha Keskin is the Vice President of ISRA (Islamic Sciences and Research Academy of Australia), Auburn, Australia.

Our Friend

in the beauty of

countless vibrant hearts

strongly sinewed

in purifying love.

We meet you

Our Friend

in the steadfast

prayerful care

of blessing hands

and radiant faces.

We meet you

Our Friend

in attentive minds

and quickened spirits

devoted to guiding

our journey together.

We meet you

Our Friend

in crescendoed voices

reverberating the praises

of the Only Holy One

Whose lowly servant you are.

Salaam.

– Bernadette & Daniel Skubik

Bernadette and Daniel live in Riverside, CA. Daniel Skubik is a professor of law, ethics, and humanities in California Baptist University.

Only 0.15 % of the energy that reaches the earth is used by the plants and the algae as a source of energy for photosynthesis. The energy that is stored in the form of chemical energy within the photosynthetic plants establishes the source of energy for the food that is consumed by the creation. The past creation, as a result of the physical-chemical processes, was fossilized and solar power has been stored in the form of fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas).

Energy consumption and the environment

Energy consumption is viable for every form of work; the waste is what remains in the environment. This waste does not pose a problem as long as they do not damage the sensitive ecologic balance. However, rapid industrialization and urbanization, which lead to excessive amounts of energy consumption, result in environmental problems. Since industrialization-urbanization is directly related to energy consumption – particularly with fossil fuels – industrialized countries are more vulnerable to experiencing environmental problems. In today’s world, it is climatic change – a product of global warming – among these problems that is of the greatest global importance.

The increase in the proportion of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, in the atmosphere is the main factor for global warming. This increase is directly related to the consumption of fossil fuels. The rays of the sun, which are reflected from the earth, are trapped by carbon dioxide gases (chlorofluorocarbon, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases, such as water vapor) in the atmosphere, and they can not return to space. This, in turn leads to the atmosphere heating up (the greenhouse effect), eventually leading to an increase in heat throughout the world.

The main reason for the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the consumption of fossil fuels (77%) and the decrease in the number of forests (23%). Coal gas is normally the last product of the anaerobic processes in nature. In recent years human intervention played the main role in this abnormal increase in gases. Playing an important part in this process is the expansion in rice fields (38%) in order to feed the increasing population, natural gas extraction and its transfer (16%), an increase in the number of cattle (14%), coal mining (12%), and the oxidation of produced biomass (6%). Chlorofluorocarbon is included in industrial products. As for the nitrous oxides, they are the by-products of reactions in the nitrogen cycle in nature. In recent years, as a result of the increase in the use of the nitrogenous manures (85%), forest fires and other fires (11%), and the oxidation of the produced biomass (7%) there has been a rise in nitrous oxide. Consequently, the rapid increase in greenhouse gases in the last years has lead to a 0.5°C increase in the average heat of the earth.

If the greenhouse gases continue to be accumulated at this speed, then by 2100 the average heat of the earth will record an increase of 2–4°C compared to the period before industrialization. Eventually, there will be a greater melting of the glaciers at the poles, which will lead to 0.5–1.5 % increase in sea level. Thus, residential areas by the seaside, agricultural areas, wetlands and industrialized areas will face the danger of being flooded. Moreover, the risks of climatic changes and desertification will become much more severe.

Some countries are investigating how to calculate the probable effects of a decline in water, food and energy resources and what precautions need to be taken accordingly as a result of global warming. In this sense, the problem was clearly indicated during the summit meetings in Vienna (1985), Rio (1982), and Kyoto (1997), however, they have not been sufficient to provide a solution.

Another important problem arising from the overuse of fossil fuels is the damage to the environment caused by air pollution and acid rain. During the consumption of fossil fuels, CO2, NOx, and SOx are emitted into the atmosphere and these, combining with water vapor, lead to the formation of carbonic acid (H2CO3), nitric acid (HNO3) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4). While normally the pH of rain water is 5.5–6, with these acids it falls down to 3.5–4. This and the resultant dissolution of the metals in the water pose a threat for both the land and the aquatic ecosystems (e.g. a decline in fish species in many lakes) and impair the ecologic balance.

The impact of alternative and renewable energy on the environment

The negative impact of fossil fuels on the environment and the decline in their reserves has accelerated the search for new energy resources. Even though nuclear energy is not a renewable resource, today it has come to be regarded as an alternative energy resource all around the world. Hydrogen, too, is another growing alternative resource. Geothermal energy is also a renewable energy resource, yet it is mostly restricted to the region where it originates.

With current technology, it costs us more to use solar energy rather than to extract fossil fuels. Moreover, there is a great need for the development of new technology that is aimed at producing wind, hydroelectric, bio-energy, tidal and wave energy in the most efficient way at the lowest cost.

Defeated by their ambitions, human beings, particularly in the last century, have destroyed the world and the environment that has been entrusted to them. Since the global impact and the cost of this process only emerged recently, it was too late before human beings realized that they needed to shift from energy systems based on fossil fuels. All the worries and concerns that have surfaced today is not because we have finally realized that the earth has been entrusted to human beings, but simply because the future seems to be promising nothing but destruction. Thus, the real solution to the problems is not related to acting to find a solution to the problems, but rather in being in compliance with the measures of the actual Owner of the world and the universe and avoiding form all types of extremism.

References

• Spiro Thomas G. and Stigliani William M. 1996. Chemistry of the Environment, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA.
• Godish Thad. 1997. Air Quality, CRC Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, New York.
• World Energy Outlook. 2004. International Energy Agency.

Turning to the path that Bosnian identity has followed in the New World, we must first recognize that ethnic identity and religion can intersect at different angles. Over the course of my encounters with members of the Bosnian community, I have come to observe that Bosnian refugees consider themselves Muslims in a cultural sense, a sense they said was generally devoid of actual practical content. This suggests a conception of ethnic identity perceived to be one and the same thing as religious identity. This “culture=religion” formulation may help explain, at least in part, the rather scarce presence of Bosnian Muslims in American mosques in cities where Bosnian refugees have resettled (This, however, should not be construed to mean that one can express piety only by going to the mosque; the role and function of mosques in American society would itself require another essay). The relative indifference of important segments of the Bosnian population toward religious practice is additionally due to the lack of understanding and focus on the suffering of Bosnian Muslims during the 1992–1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The influence of recent memories of not having been treated fairly by the international community-including the Muslim world-during the war, it was reported to me, plays a role in the scarce presence of Bosnian Muslims in the greater American Muslim community.

Among Bosnian refugees in the city of Syracuse, statements by both the refugees themselves and the officials of the Islamic Society in Syracuse confirm the actualization of the “culture=religion” identity formulation amongst Bosnians in Syracuse. Some young Bosnians, for example, do not attend in big numbers at the otherwise compulsory congregational Friday prayer performed in the multinational Syracuse mosque. My own observations and the remarks of the officials from the Islamic Society confirm that no more than ten per cent of the Bosnian Muslim population attends the Friday prayer. Nevertheless, these same youth convey the unease they feel when their identity as Muslims is questioned (especially by non-Muslims in the workplace, at school et cetera). Bosnians have recently launched a mosque of their own in the eastern part of the city; however, leading members of the community told me the number of attendees in Friday prayers since the facility opened about two years ago is far less than they would have liked. However, attendance of commemorative events and bajram (eid) celebrations is remarkably more sizeable.

At the same time, some Bosnian Muslims have expressed discontent regarding the prevailing formulation in which religion is perceived as a cultural décor. There are sincere efforts by some members of the Bosnian population toward an authentic religious identity filled with actual content. Included among such efforts are the weekend classes offered at the Bosnian mosque, in particular for young Bosnian children, in which the essentials of faith, practical information about prayers, and similar topics are taught. But I have also been privy to conversations in which concerns were being raised that some young Bosnians have for some time been, to use their word for it, “Americanizing”: They are not as respectful toward their elders any more, they come home late, and drink-all of which suggest to the concerned that there are dangers ahead which might arise from experiments with American notions of freedom. Though one could argue that these notions do not necessarily or always imply these behaviors, it is important to recognize that Bosnian youth are growing up in an individualistic culture that includes values and practices which parents might find to be at odds with their own upbringing back in Bosnia. Coupled with the lack of adequate parental supervision over children due to demanding work schedules, this clash of values is a cause of concern for a youth that is not given the guidance to navigate through the intricacies of becoming American. In addition, a Bosnian friend of mine, who is currently a professor of political science, reminded that the refugees will soon face another hurdle: the increasing inability of young Bosnians to speak the Bosnian language. He claims that Bosnian children in particular speak only English among themselves, raising the probability that in a generation or two, the Bosnian language may become rare among Bosnians themselves.

Refugees from Srebrenitza living in Syracuse seek to keep the memory of the Srebrenitza massacre of 1995 alive. They publish booklets in English and Bosnian languages, issue bumper stickers (‘Never Forget Srebrenitza’), and hold commemorative ceremonies on the anniversary of the event. Bosnian Muslims concerned about the future of Bosnian identity in the New World see these activities as vital in terms of constructing a collective Bosnian consciousness in America.

It seems quite clear, at least to this observer, that the hyphenated identity term “Bosnian-American” is on its way to becoming the standard description to use in relation to Bosnians in the United States. The exact referent of that term will become clearer based on certain issues including (but certainly are not limited to), on the one side, the scope, nature, and effects of their feelings toward America, and on the other, their choice between cultural or practical religion.

Fethi Keles is an Adjunct Instructor of Anthropology at Syracuse University.

This is the Winner essay of our 2010 writing contest conducted in cooperation with Everest Productions. Participants were asked to write down to live out what truly mattered to them most assuming they were told they had only three days left in this life.

Time-our most precious commodity-may seem infinite, but it is also unrecoverable. Once a moment is spent, it is gone forever. This is because we are linear beings. We are born into this world at Point A-our Arrival-and then move forward from there, making some detours along the way. We wander-sometimes aimlessly-to Point B, taking a spouse, perhaps, or throwing ourselves into our careers. Later, we meander to Point C, which is trying to enjoy our lives on the way to old age. But ultimately we all arrive at the same destination, which is Point D-our Death. There are no exceptions to this rule, and it is not an arguable point. We cannot sue God to recoup the losses of our misspent youth, and the universe has one iron-clad policy regarding time: YOU WASTE IT, YOU’VE LOST IT. So, with this information firmly in mind, I ask myself: “What would I do if I had only 72 hours left to live?” It is an interesting question that is difficult to answer because I have spent the majority of my adult life in prison. Which, incidentally, is where I am now.

I am currently serving a 6-year sentence and have no way of knowing if I will ever see the streets again. I am forty-five years old and healthy, but as we all know-tomorrow is promised to no one. So this question of 72 hours intrigues me on several levels, the first of which is: “What would it be like to die alone in prison?” I rarely speak with my family, and while I do have a couple of good friends, they are not here. So here I would die, and alone it would be. The implications of that statement have shaken me in a way that until a few days ago I would have thought impossible. I can barely imagine lying here on my prison bunk, knowing that soon I would close my eyes, never to open them again. I have accomplished nothing of importance in my life, and with 72 hours to live there would be virtually no chance of me doing anything to benefit this world or anyone in it. Sure, I have written five novels, but much like me, they are lying dormant doing nothing to benefit anyone. The thought that they would never be published makes me want to cry. In fact, I can feel that thought wrenching my heart as I write this very sentence. Nevertheless, all of that is a very selfish way of thinking, but it is with that self-centered attitude that I am most comfortable. Due to my addiction and abuse of alcohol, I have led a very selfish life. I rarely gave more than a passing thought to the feelings or well-being of others. Now, however, I will admit this: I feel quite remorseful of the way I have treated others. I am not a heartless person; I just had to close my heart to combat the pain of addiction, and then the emptiness of long-term incarceration. I wasn’t always like that, of course. I was even in love once-a long, long time ago. I remember it like it was yesterday, but that is only because nothing of importance has happened to me since. It’s funny now, more than twenty years later, but I can still remember the way she kissed. I still miss her sometimes. If I had only 72 yours left to live, I would probably think a lot about her. It was the last time that I was truly happy.

But happy memories are self-indulgent, and with my life-clock ticking down, I believe that the time would have finally arrived for me to make peace with myself. I have never forgiven myself for wasting the talents and gifts that God has given me. I am not a stupid man: I know for a fact that I could have helped others. I could have made a difference. I could have shown people how to avoid walking down the same lonely roads that I have traveled. I could have shown them how important it is to be able to smile at yourself in the mirror, and how empowering it is to thank God every day for all that has occurred-good or bad. But I didn’t. Instead, I spent my life at the bottom of a vodka bottle, doing nothing but feeling sorry for myself. What a waste. What a complete and shameful waste.

So here, now, lying on a prison bunk contemplating the prospect of having 72 hours to live, sadly, I suppose, that for me it would all come down to regrets. The biggest of these would be that I never had children. Not because I don’t like them-because I do-but because I grew up without a father, and I could never bring myself to inflict that kind of pain on my own child. And since I was unable to stop drinking, it was a certainty that I would always be in prison. Nevertheless, I have to say that just once in my life it would have been nice to get a big goodnight hug along with an, “I love you, Daddy.”

But in the end I suppose that I would use my last few hours searching for the meaning of life. Not in some universal sense, but in a very personal-and, as usual-selfish way. I would like to say that I would put aside my life-long obsession with gratifying my own immediate desires, but the truth is – I have no idea how to do that. Selfless acts seem a mystery to me, yet I don’t know why. Even in the past when I’ve done the smallest of kindnesses, such as giving spare change to a homeless person, I am sure that somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking, “Did you see that God? When you get a chance, could you jot that down on my scorecard?”

And-yes-I do believe in God. So in those last few hours I would be constantly calling Him on His cell phone, asking Him to forgive me for my past indiscretions. He would forgive me, being the loving and merciful God that He is, and maybe that is what my entire existence here on earth would boil down to those last few moments in which I realize that I have done nothing to be worthy of God’s mercy and grace, but will receive it anyway.

So again-here, now-lying on this prison bunk, it’s difficult to find any one thing that I could do to make a difference. I am open to any revelations or epiphanies that God might like to place on my heart because after having caused so much pain on my brief journey through this world, I would dearly love to “shuffle off this mortal coil,” believing that I have left this place a little better than how I found it.

It’s a lovely thought.

It is an interesting question.

Which is why I find it so disturbing that in an infinite universe full of limitless possibilities, I am still unable to offer a satisfactory answer.

There is explicit information in the divine scriptures that the Great Flood did take place, and that it was a divine message to humanity. About these two points, most of the members of the three Abrahamic religions, and even members of many other faiths, do not have a problem at all. But if we want to draw detailed information about the flood, then we see many topics of discussion: was it a local or global flood? What were the number and kinds of animals in the ark? What was the size of the ark? What was the date of the event? And so on.

In the Qur’an, we are not given all of the details of the flood event. In fact, we should not expect to find all of the details in the revelation, because its primary goal is to inculcate love and respect of God in people, not to teach them science or history. So, from a religious perspective, details such as whether the flood was local or global, whether the ark was powered or not, etc., are irrelevant. What matters is that human beings are not left to their own in this life, and that they have a responsibility towards their Creator. What is more, if dealing with such undisclosed details is diverting us from the main point, this means we are being blinded by what we think we know; not illuminated. Maybe, this is why we are not given in the Qur’an those details. So, one needs to be careful in this regard.

However, keeping the mentioned warnings in mind, for a person eager to discover other signs of God that are invisible at first glance, the doors of study are wide open. Accordingly, when scholars set out to make a complete picture of the Great Flood based on the information from the revelation, at times they rationally fill in the missing details, or interpret already existing ones. And this is exactly where the discussions start.

In this article, it is our intention to make a brief analysis of the Islamic sources on this issue. In doing this, Qur’anic verses [1] and the exegesis of these verses by three prominent Muslim scholars from the classical and modern era (Hamdi Yazir, Fahr al-Din al-Razi, and Ibn Kathir) are going to be our main references. Then, with the knowledge and comprehension of a contemporary mind, the suggestions of these scholars are going to be scrutinized, again based on the information from the Qur’an [2]. Our aim is to show that there is still room for discovery in the story of the Great Flood, that there probably are other signs of God not revealed so far.

Before we begin, we also would like to underline what is not our intention. Just as in the case of a miraculous feeding of hundreds of people from a bowl of food, it is nonsense to discuss what quantum mechanical processes might have led to such a result, it is similarly futile to try to entirely explain the Great Flood in a cause-effect chain. If something is a miracle, it means that God performs it out of the confines of His practice [3] (what we call as “God’s customs” are referred to as “cause-effect chain” by some scientists). But if it is not a miracle, such as the presence of the little amount of food initially in the miracle of abundance, then it can be scrutinized in terms of God’s customs. Therefore, while discussing the Great Flood, we need to keep in mind this criterion to distinguish between its miraculous and customary parts.

Another point that is not intended is to shake the reliability of scholars in religious matters. Those scholars had not only the best and sincerest of intentions to understand the revelation, but also the fear of God lest they misrepresent the content of the revelation. So, the discussion in this article should not invalidate the reliability of the scholars in essential matters of faith, since our discussion is focused on secondary issues rather than primary ones.

Having outlined what is intended and what is not, let’s start.

Persisting questions

Based on different combinations of interpretations of the existing information from the Qur’an, you could derive several variances of the Great Flood. In this article, we are going to briefly question the prevailing flood scenario suggested by scholars.

Was it a local or a global flood?

There is still debate about whether the flood was local or global. Let’s analyze the two cases, starting with the global scenario. When we say global, it is not necessarily a flood that is covering the entire surface of the earth, but rather the majority of it, and also it affected the entirety of humanity. Conversely, a local flood is one that affects a minor part of the earth and only a part of humanity. In this regard, the prayer of the Prophet Noah calling for the destruction of the unbelievers is taken by some scholars as a sign for a global flood.

Noah also said: “My Lord! Do not leave on the earth any from among the unbelievers dwelling therein.” (Noah 71:26)

One can say that his prayer does not necessarily point to its fulfillment, and this is a fair objection. But, when Noah prayed for the salvation of his unbelieving son, a relatively minor issue, he was corrected at once, and we are informed about it in the Qur’an:

Noah called out to his Lord, saying: “O my Lord, my son was of my family, and Your promise is surely true, and You are the Most Just of Judges.” (God) said: “O Noah he is not of your family. He is one of unrighteous conduct. So do not ask of Me what you have no knowledge of. I admonish you so that you do not behave as one among the ignorant.” (Noah) said: “O my Lord! I seek refuge in You, lest I should ask of You what I have no knowledge of. And unless You forgive me and have mercy on me, I will indeed be among the losers.” (Hud 11:45–47)

One would think that if God is telling us a correction to a minor issue, He would certainly let us know about a correction to a major issue. The fact that such a correction is missing can be understood as the fulfillment of the prayer. So, in this regard, the Qur’an contains information that can lead to a global flood scenario [4].

If we consider the local flood scenario, first of all, we see that it, too, has support from revelation. According to a verse in the Qur’an, Noah was not a global prophet, but was only sent to his people (Noah 71:1). If the flood came due to his situation among his people, only those who are in his community should be affected. Thus, it was a local flood.

Another detail supporting the local flood idea is the way Noah was consoled by God before they went out of the ark after the flood.

He was told: “O Noah! Get you down in peace and safety from Us, and with blessings upon you and upon the communities who are with you. Communities – We will provide for them to enjoy themselves for a term and then there will visit them from Us a painful punishment.” (Hud 11:48)

Looking at this verse, Razi concludes that Noah was worried about how they are going to survive after all that happened. And so, God consoled Noah telling him to go out in peace and abundance. Such peace and abundance would not be possible in a place that was totally devastated by the flood. Aside from this, the same verse has a reference that can be interpreted as the sign of other communities on the earth after the flood. These clues altogether support a local flood scenario.

How about the animals in the ark?

Information from the Qur’an about the gathering of the animals is as follows:

Until the time when Our command came and the boiler started boiling over, We said: “Embark in it a pair of each kind, and your family, except those against whom Our sentence has already been passed, and those who believe.” And those who believed with him were few. Noah said, “Board it! In God’s Name be its course and its mooring. Surely my Lord is All-Forgiving, All-Compassionate.” (Hud 11:40-41)

There are several questions, however, about the involvement of the animals in this story. These questions are mainly due to the assumption that there were thousands of animals on board.

If we assume that there were thousands of species on board, the first question is “how did thousands of species get together?” Is it just an obvious miracle that Noah calls the animals, and suddenly all of the animals start rushing to the ark? If we assume that they were somehow collected, how is it possible that animals which live in totally opposite climate conditions could survive in the ship? What kind of an ark can contain hundreds of thousands of different animals on board? How about their food, was the ark big enough to contain sufficient food to feed thousands of animals for a long time? Considering the small number of believers on the ark, how were the animals cared for? Were the animals free to wander around in the ark? How come they did not create terror in there or devastate it? How were hygiene conditions met while all those creatures coexisted in the same place with humans?

Contrary to the number of questions listed above, there is no information in the Qur’an about the state of the travelers while on board. Can the absence of such information point to something else that we are missing, for example another miraculous event while in the ark that can answer our questions?

Was the ark a sail-type or was it powered?

Some contemporary Islamic scholars claim that it was powered by a kind of steam engine. This conclusion is arrived through the Qur’anic phrase “farat-tannur” (Hud 11:40–41), which means “a boiler that is boiling over.” But this conclusion of the Muslim scholars also entails several questions.

A ship does not need an engine if it is only meant to float. As long as it has hydrodynamic stability and structural strength, it can do the job. Let’s say the engine is needed to maneuver the ship according to a predetermined route. However, there is no clue in the divine descriptions for the presence of such a route. Furthermore, one verse in the Qur’an clearly reports that the route of the ark is up to God (Hud 11, 41). Then, why is the engine needed in the first place, even if it did really exist?

As a result, we are left with this mind-intriguing phrase “farat-tannur,” which needs a meaningful explanation. Whether Noah’s ark was powered or not is still uncertain.

What is the clear sign for all worlds?

In the Qur’an, we are told that “it is a sign for all worlds – ayatan lil alemin” (Ankabut 29:14–15) [5]. Scholars tell us that the pronoun it could either refer to the ark or to the flood. However, the things that are attributed to a “sign” in the Qur’an are obvious things. If we assume that the clear sign for all is the ark, then it must be available to us for it to become a sign. So, it is unlikely that the sign mentioned in the verse is the ark.

On the other hand, the pronoun it could refer to the flood story as the clear sign for all, which is currently more plausible than the ark being the sign. But, there are several other destruction stories in the Qur’an which could potentially be a clear sign for all. What makes Noah’s story so special aside from the others so that only it is mentioned as “a sign for all,” and a separate chapter in the Qur’an is reserved for it? This question becomes even more pronounced if the flood was only a local one. How come a local flood involving limited number of people is so distinct from the other destruction stories, and can become a clear sign for all until the end of time?

What is the water of the sky, and where is it coming from?

The start of the flood-related events is explained in the Qur’an as follows:

So We opened the gates of the sky, with water outpouring; and We caused the earth to gush forth with springs, so the waters combined for a matter already ordained. (Qamar 54:11–12).

There are several curiosity-arousing points in this explanation, some of which are mentioned below.

The distinctive explanations for the two waters given in the verse bring the question whether this rain water could be an unusual one [6, 7]. Curious enough, the literal translation of the quoted verse says “the water met,” not “waters combined.” Some scholars say that such singular mentioning is due to the fact that water is a single entity whether its origin is a spring or rain. However, if we consider the water of the sky as something other than regular water, then the verse becomes literally explicit, because it is actually only the water of the earth that is meeting something from the sky. According to the rules of interpreting the Qur’an, such literally explicit and rational meaning is preferable over an interpreted one.

Second, the gates of the sky are told to be opened by the coming of the water, not “the water is let go by the gates.” Along the same lines, in the Qur’an, the explanation of the events of the end of times involves an opening of the sky. Could gates of the sky have anything to do with events other than just rain?

An interim solution

A scenario suggested by Islamic scholars that can resolve several of the questions stated so far assumes that the humanity at the time of Noah was not much populated, and was a single tribe [8]. Thus, a local flood that threatens the small human population does not necessitate the gathering of all of the animals on the earth. Instead, only animals sufficient to sustain the life in the immediate aftermath of the flood are gathered in the ark. The people around Noah would step on land and make their living from these animals, and as time goes by, the rest of the animals elsewhere on the earth would re-populate the once-flooded regions.

However, this local flood story brings with it some problems. If it was a local flood, and if the ark was only large enough to contain a few believers and a few animals, where is the greatness of the Great Flood, where is the clear sign for all worlds? What is the big deal with the water of the sky and earth, if it suffices to have a local flood, which can even be achieved with regular rains? Why did God explicitly give the instructions for the construction of the ark to Noah, if it is a local flood that people could survive by a regular ark?

Conclusion

The discussion presented in this article shows the gist of the debates surrounding the idea of the Great Flood. Yet, despite hundreds of years of study, there is no satisfactory scenario that can answer all these, and possible other, questions. In any case, what we know for sure is that whether it is a global flood or a global warming, we should not wait for clear signs to appear in order for us to obey the Lord of the worlds; because when they appear, it may be too late.

Sermed Ogretim has a PhD in Aerospace Engineering and is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow at West Virginia University. He has a special interest in psychological fiction.

Notes

1 The translations of the Qur’anic verses are taken from Ali Unal’s The Qur’an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English, The Light Inc., NJ, USA, 2006.

2 For certain points in the discussion, we are going to provide supplementary information from the Old Testament that is in agreement with the Qur’an.

3 Erdin, M., “Are Religion and Science Compatible,” The Fountain, Issue 49, Jan.-Mar. 2005.

4 According to the Old Testament, the flood was global and was large enough to cover the entire surface of the earth, including the high mountains (Genesis 7, 11-20).

5 “Ayeten lil alemin” is only mentioned twice in the Qur’an. The first one is about Mary and Jesus’s miraculous birth from her (Anbiya 21:91), and the second is this one about the Great Flood. The phrase ayeten lil alemin is usually translated as “sign for all people”; but all people can only be a subset of what alemin really means. A similar phrase, rahmatan lil-alemin, is used for Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, in the Qur’an (Anbiya 21:107). Hamdi Yazir interprets this phrase as “mercy for all existence.” Ali Unal interprets the same phrase as “unequalled mercy for all the worlds.” So, it is fair in the context of the Great Flood to scrutinize the meaning of “sign for all people/worlds.”

6 It is curious that both in the Old Testament and in the Qur’an, water of the sky is distinctly mentioned aside the water of the earth. In the Old Testament, we are first told about the creation of the water of the sky (Genesis 1:6-8). When the time of the flood comes, the windows of the sky open (Genesis 7:11), and the flood is realized by the cooperation of the water of the skies and earth.

7 Two independent references to this end are a verse from the Qur’an and a hadith, given here respectively: “His (God’s) throne on water” Hud (11:7), “heaven is a sea whose waves have calmed” (Tirmidhi, Tafsir al-Surah 57/1; Musnad, 2/370). In both of these instances, the implicit or explicit use of the concept of water cannot be the water we drink.

8 Yazir, H., Exegesis of the chapter Hud, Hak Dini Kur’an Dili, Vol. 4.